Blockwork has been levelled.
Carpentry @first suspended floor commenced

Soak-away and septic tank walls to be strengthened midway by a reinforced concrete beam right round.
My carpenter on it!

Work continues on lintel columns and arches.... reinforced concrete

Blockwork@soak-away

Carpentry@lintel

X2X:


I thought there is need for some kind of damp proofing membrane?

nice observation. The membrane was skipped because this site is on a hilltop.

And casting footing for soak-away walls

Hitting lintel level right round

While works @soak-away continues

Block work

Curing our slab

Operations... ground floor slab

Pending little plumbing works... concrete works for tomorrow

Soak away excavation: completed
filling/compaction: 90% completed
carpentry form work for ground floor completed with adequate braces.
90% prepped for casting ground floor slab

Next stage: filling.
We are getting there!

I must confess... this is good idea doing this excavation at this time. See sand for filling at my finger tip. Due to the highly compacted nature of this soil formation, the volume of sand that comes out of every cubic meter dug is far above one cubic meter..... "This ground dey vomit sand o" that's how my boy describes this scenario.
Bottom line is we will have more than enough sand for filling and save me some good money

And we have proceeded with the excavation of the pit

While block work is ongoing in the trenches... I have marked out my 12x18 soak-away pit.
I want to use laterite dug out o this pit for my filling instead of importing laterite to the site

smiley001:
Neat Job.
This is another thread to follow.

Weldone Boss.

welcome on board sir

odiereke:
Nice Job my broda, am really following up with your project. Am a civil Engineer too, based in Port around Choba Uniport area. I think I may be of assistance to you and your project in so many area. I have almost all civil equipments for hire. I may give you a call later to have a chat with you. Thanks keep the good works up my broda.

Odiereke thanks for the interest

erico2k2:

OK I will be doing same at Obiakpor not far from the East west fly over,December, your mixer and poker how much did it cost for a day's rental? and how much was the cost of labour per persons during the blinding?

erico2k2, the both equipment are mine but you could get a mixer in PH at about 15k per day while the poker goes for 10k per day.... operator pay inclusive.
Labour in this type of concrete work goes for 800naira per every bag of cement used... it's better paying per bag as it's puts seriousness into the workmen

Block work for the foundation begun

erico2k2:

brov nice one, how's the weather there? hows the rain treating you guys?

erico2k2 we are bracing the weather with proper timing of operations.... though the rains have abated a bit

diordaves:
Malkomx nice job.

The plan is good and I like the flow but I will prefer the visitors toilet not to open directly into the living room (parlour). With this opening into the living room it means the toilet door has to be very air tight or the smell from a visitor doing number 2 will filter into the living area and may affect folks having their meals. I have seen it happen. As the case may be, look into the possibility of locating the door to the visitors toilet in the verander downstairs but it will be tricky situating a toilet in the verander upstairs so look for a creative alternative.

Your work is very good. Well done.

diordaves thanks for your wonderful observation. I've already looked at it but I left that way in order not to distort the internal aesthetic of the living room. But as you suggested the door would be airtight and since the rooms are ensuite I fore-see a sparse usage of this toilet. Thanks all the same sir

Dressing the top of the foundation footing i.e. levelling to receive block-work

And thoroughly vibrated mechanically too

Foundation concrete mixing done mechanically

Concrete @ foundation footing + column base

Now we are good to go. Columns have been positioned, tied to their baskets in the provision made for them. Column base is 1.2m x 1.2m x 0.1m. Some columns 22Nos have 4 runners while others 12Nos have 6 runners according to specification in our structural drawings.... all 16mm rebars, baskets inclusive

johnson232:

Thanks for your response sir, and I hope to work with u soon, that's if u are willing to travel, as the next project will be in edo state. I can see your work is moving on smoothly, neat job, Just saw the elevation, the project is quite big.
what is the depth of the trenches and column base?

The bottom of the trench is flat as against the undulating topography of the Natural Ground Level, as such some areas are about 1m deep while some are a little less..... an average of 900mm or 3ft.
Looking forward to working with you too

Progress with column-base excavation

johnson232:

Thanks a lot for the response. Just wanted to know if my builder is on track, it's a remote place. The building is @ slab level, the builder says he is gonna need to increase the height of the beam reinforcement below the slab. Hope this is okay sir? Where are u base?

Johnson232 increasing beam height above drawing specification is not favourable to the pockets but if it is done to achieve purposes not anticipated during design stage then at the discretion of the builder/site engineer these changes can be made. Thanks for following this thread.... I'm at your beck and call for professional engineering advice. I'm based in Portharcout